Metroid

Also didn't the Space Pirates have a reputation for being brainless in the Prime games too? Don't know why Erior is suddenly all vindictive.

Also, isn't there some maxim about "people have rights, ideas don't?" I think that would be relevant considering all this Sakamoto distaste.

In regards to the future of Metroid, perhaps they really need to just open up their world. Metroidvania does seem to get a bit bogged down by certain tropes of implied linearity and sequence. Also, do you guys find Metroid sufficiently scary or unsettling when you play the games?

edited 24th Jul '14 12:04:21 PM by blueflame724

They're probably on about Science Team.

Well, they were always a bit idiotic, especially Science Team and their vapor brains, but the Prime series portrays them as a sapient society of individuals, whereas Other M portrays them as more like an army of mindless ants simply controlled by Mother Brain's supposed telepathy.

Again, even the manga, which came up with the "hive society" tripe, showed that the pirates had individual personalities, such as the one who made a mockery of Peking Man and Pointy Ears when Samus tried to interrogate him. (The one Samus wanted to just shoot)

Anyway, the Prime Pirates are not mindless, they're just hilariously incompetent, harsh and have a frightening lack of regard for life or well being. They willingly put their troops in sticky pods loaded with explosives and hope the survive impact to board enemy ships, they use disobedient militia as rations, they treat a highly toxic plant as a delicacy, they have laws against stealing and a "training facility" that consists of two raised platforms. Some of those could maybe be the actions of feral creatures but once they start bemoaning their fate, threatening charges of treason, arguing about revenge on the marines, talking about potential trade partners and executing those who doubt their leader you realize these are the mistakes of sapience. They're surprisingly pragmatic in certain ways too:Restricting access to Thardus, upgrading the federation technology they steal, using Ing possessed troops as food for Metroids, training the Korrak to take revenge on whoever kills its rider, trying to make peace with Dark Samus, planting landmines to deal with the Reptilicus...

edited 25th Jul '14 3:35:46 AM by IndirectActiveTransport

Well one could rationalize this as being a Spartan-style "survive or GTFO" society, where the losers are fed to the metaphorical (or possibly literal) lions.

Them treating a toxic plant as a delicacy isn't necessarily stupid. It may very well not be toxic to Space Pirates. Universal Poison and all.

Exactly. that kinda thinking is actually kinda dumb. I don't see how alien biologies can be exactly the same as one another even if they have a humanoid shape.

Pirate Miltia members who do poorly are made into rations for higher ranked soldiers, according to Prime 3.

That's only seen in practice after species wide Phazon madness has set in, as far as we know.

The Pirates (until Other M) generally lacked common sense and were easy to coercer/mind control/manipulate but they were always sapient.

In D20 or Dungeons And Dragons terms; they would probably take a penalty (-2 or -4) to Wisdom, in exchange to a Dexterity boost (they are all pretty agile).

Even the manga, wich Sakamoto was involved in, portays the Pirates as sapient. Thye just have a biological imperative to follow a strong leader. Infact, considering Ridley was leading them for a long time before they conquered Zebes, they clearly are able to act as a cohesive army withou Mother Brain.

Considerign how they are stated to modify themsleves with genetics and cybernetics to best suit whatever planet they're on or whatver role they have (which is the explanation why they neve rlook the same in any Metroid game), the Pirates in Other M (and by extension Super and Zero Mission) may have been modified to be non-sapient. If they're supposed to be stationed on the same planet as Mother Brain, who can telepathically control other life forms, then making them sapient might have been considered unnecessary by the Science Team/High Command. Why make your footsoldiers able to think for themselves (and therefore potentially panic, misintrepert orders or do something stupid like try keeping Metroids as pets), when you can have a super-intelligent sapient computer do the thinking for them?

Or rather, why would Federation create biological weapon troopers that can think and decide "Wait, why are we working for federation again?"

Anyone working for the Galactic Federation would probably think that their best bet is to be on the side where most of the humans are.

Which is where almost all of them are.

Apparently, the Light Suit is getting a figure - the company also seems to have done a few Zelda and Metroid figures, including a particularly hideous Zero Suit.

edited 25th Jul '14 2:00:08 AM by Null

Yeah that company's figures can be a bit hit-or-miss at times (not a fan of their Midna figure either). Their Zero Suit figure is mostly amusing to me. She looks like the Samus that could pull off the face made in the image on our Americans Hate Tingle page.

The Light Suit figure looks promising though.

EDIT: Alex Ahad (art designer of Skullgirls) made some fanart showing Zero Suit Samus with different boots on, I guess because he's amused by the ones she has in Smash now.

I found it amusing. Sorry if it's been posted before.

edited 25th Jul '14 1:20:46 PM by Customer

So I think people were talking about how "Metroid" is almost an Artifact Title, or at least could easily become one, since they all died in Super.

You guys are forgetting that "Metroid" is apparently Chozo for "Ultimate Warrior" or something and that describes Samus to a T.

I like the flip flops.

Did you say Ultimate Warrior?

I actually made that joke a while ago. It flew over everyone's heads tho.

I understood that reference.

I have started playing Metroid Prime for what's probably the twenty trillionth time now. I still love it.

Why do the Parasite Queens on the Orpheon have endoskeletons? Shouldn't they only have exoskeletons?

Some Pirates subscribe to the philosophy of "You can never be too careful"

Biology Team has vapor for brains.

The Biology Team would be a part of the Science Team, I think.

At least, I don't see the Space Pirates having a Medical Team.

It might have gotten large enough to warrant needing an internal skeleton as well. Real insects get away with only exo-skeletons because they're so small.

Arthropleura was a thing, the limiting factor in arthropod growth is their comparatively subpar respiratory system. And a combination of exo and endoskeletons is not that unheard of. Placoderms did it, for instance, and one may say turtles do as well, seeing their shell is fused with their ribcage and spine.